B2B music streaming service Soundtrack Your Brand raises $15 million

Stockholm-based “Spotify for Business” B2B music streaming service Soundtrack Your Brand has raised $15 million in a new funding round. Founded by former COO & Co-Founder Beats Music Ola Sars, the investment is aimed at turning the volume up on a go-to-market strategy that’s already resulted in 60% year-on-year revenue growth in 2022.

The round was led by former ASCAP Board of Directors member and SONGS Music Publishing Founder & CEO Matt Pincus’ MUSIC with Liontree, JS Capital Management, Schusterman Family Investments, and Dundee Partners participating alongside existing investors including Balderton Capital, Fuel Venture Capital, Industrifonden, Telia, and DIG.

Soundtrack Your Brand provides streaming music in commercial settings including stores, hotels, restaurants, and other establishments. Also known as background music, you might not even give it a second thought, queuing up your favourite Spotify playlists to be broadcast in these commercial settings is anything but legal. There’s a big difference between personal use and “in-store” use, and fair is fair - the artists that create this music should be compensated appropriately for their work.

In fact, one of Soundtrack Your Brand’s products, “Soundtrack Unlimited” offers a “Make your Spotify playlists legal” option, with “Just drag them into the app to legally play them in your business” simplicity.

“It’s hard to believe but, before Soundtrack Your Brand, business owners had no legitimate option to play music on demand for their customers,” commented Pincus. “Almost every business has some need for music – and most business owners believe that music creators should be paid for their work. It sounds obvious, but it took a mountain of technological and business innovation to bring on-demand music to enterprise and Soundtrack nailed it.”

Soundtrack Your Brand counts McDonald’s, Lululemon, Uniqlo, Joe & The Juice, Aesop, and Tag Heuer, amongst its client roster, saw EBITDA profitability in Q1 2023, and claims $25 million in ARR closing April 2023.

"Our mission to bring transparency and accountability to the dysfunctional background music market is gaining momentum," commented Sars. "Our financial performance and operational efficiency are both already very strong, but with this investment Soundtrack Your Brand can expand our growth model into M&A, consolidating the fragmented background music market and ensuring continued premium ARPU and fair compensation to music creators."